Sweetbird Fruit Smoothies

I'd never heard of the Sweetbird brand so I was really keen to give their smoothies a try. Described as "fresh and fruity ready to drink smoothies, made with ethically sourced fruit", they instantly appealed to me, especially as they come in handy 330ml bottles that are absolutely ideal for drinking on the go. I've been drinking them at the bus-stop all week, instead of running out of the door to work after a quick swig of orange juice straight from the fridge !

I have tried all three of the flavours available - Apple & Blackcurrant, Orange & Mango, Pineapple & Passionfruit - and I love all of them. My only slight quibble is that I wouldn't actually call them smoothies, I'd call them juice, but I guess it all depends on how you define a smoothie ! According to wikipedia, "A smoothie (alternatively spelled "smoothy") is a blended, chilled, sometimes sweetened beverage made from fresh fruit (fruit smoothie) or vegetables and in special cases can contain chocolate. In addition to fruit, many smoothies include crushed ice, frozen fruit, honey or contain syrup and ice ingredients. They have a milkshake-like consistency which is thicker than slush drinks. Unlike milkshakes, they usually don't contain ice cream, but can contain milk and yogurt (and a small number of smoothies do use ice cream)."

Most of the smoothies I drink are homemade ones, and I do tend to throw in yoghurt or sometimes a scoop of ice cream to make them really thick, so the Sweetbird ones seemed surprisingly runny to me. That's not to say they weren't delicious - they are absolutely gorgeous, packed full of goodness, contain absolutely no additives and one bottle counts as two of your five a day.

The ingredients lists are amazingly simple and natural. The Apple & Blackcurrant one contains : Banana puree, apple juice 25%, red grape juice, blackcurrant juice 9%, apple puree, blackcurrant puree 4%, black carrot juice. Pineapple & Passionfruit contains : Pineapple juice (40%), Banana puree, Orange juice, Passion fruit juice (10%). And Orange & Mango contains : Apple juice, Orange juice (26%), Banana puree, Mango puree (17%), guava puree. Some of the juices are made from concentrate but that still sounds amazingly healthy to me. Not an E-number or other additive in sight, which is highly impressive - especially as they can be stored at ambient temperature so you can keep one in your bag for when you need a healthy kick to get you going again after the mid-afternoon slump.

Calorie-wise, each serving (330ml bottle) contains under 200 calories and they are so lovely and sweet and fruity that they can help ease your chocolate or sugar cravings if you're trying to eat healthily. Good news all round !

star rating : 5/5

RRP : £1.79 (for 330ml)

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